Melanie Cone

Artist Statement

A recent retiree, I've spent almost 30 years working in textile engineering, contributing to textiles made for, to name a few, biomedical, aerospace, and firefighting industries. Most of these textiles are black, white, or yellow (natural Kevlar(TM) is yellow). Trend colors, Pantone(TM) cards and design trends were not a consideration in these environments. Coming from a creative background (MFA painting, University of the Arts, 1994 / MS Textile Design, Philadelphia University, 2001), I was able to carve out a spot in a highly technical industry where, a failed trial is not a failure, but an opportunity to document and to collect data, to better understand a process or a material. I liken it to the advice from one of my painting instructors at the University of the Arts - Eugene Baguskas. Once, during an eight-hour long studio painting session, I painstakingly mixed colors and placed them onto canvas to respect my color-to-color edge qualities. At the end of the studio class, Eugene recommended I put my painting on the floor and to pour turpentine on it. He said that I'd be better off to re-use that canvas with another studio session than to keep the painting. And I did it.
In drawing classes they teach several concepts, one of which is composition. Composition: the decision relative to how to lay out your drawing. This drawing consideration is a critical input to successfully lead the viewers' eye throughout image, and, also portraying an overall sense of balance. Sometimes, however, during the creative process, the element of composition must be left to chance.
Hand woven pieces are that. On loom, under tension, there can be an entirely different aesthetic than the final result. They can be gauzy, sleazy, and even uninteresting. Off loom, (and for wool or spandex specimens, after washing also) they often take on a new energy, a new dynamic. Other times, however, the fabric itself is the medium for the drawing to occur - composition comprised of undulations in the form of folds or pleats.
A favorite and very applicable quote:
'I recently read that it's the left brain that does all that calculating, and the right brain that does the poetry. Somehow I've veered way towards the left. I've been doing it for years. Maybe I do art to balance it out.' -Jason Mraz
-Melanie Cone